The
overseas migration of the Assyrians to North
America, which started during the second half of
19th century, was not an isolated phenomenon. It
was part of a worldwide process that involved the
transfer of raw materials and human labor from the
Third World towards centers of industry in Europe
and North America, and the movement of manufactured
goods in the opposite direction. In the Middle East
the economy had become more and more geared to the
production of unprocessed commodities for exchange
abroad rather than consumption or processing at
home.[2]Cash
crops such as silk, rice, cotton, tobacco and opium
were replacing wheat, barely, and other staples.
The native cottage industries were succumbing in
competition with the foreign manufactures. Roads
and railways were constructed to connect the Middle
Eastern commodity market to the word at large. The
peasants were driven into wage labor by both need
and temptation: the need to acquire the cash with
which to pay taxes and other newly required cash
levies; the temptation to acquire foreign made
commodities. Christian minorities like the
Assyrians and Armenians had additional reasons to
leave their homeland. Many were uprooted due to the
antagonism of native Muslims towards the intrusion
of foreign “Christian” powers. The presence of
various Protestant, Catholic, and Russian Orthodox
missions among the Assyrians and Armenians was a
mixed blessing. These missions were looked upon as
agents of colonialism in both Ottoman Turkey and
Iran. Therefore Christian minorities became targets
of Muslim hatred. In other words, foreign agitation
was diverted towards the Christians at home. A
Persian historian notes:

At
the same time the missionaries created a class of
literate young men eager to travel to Russia or
overseas to Europe or U.S.A. either to further their
education or make quick money, return home to become
professionals, freeholders, or businessmen. It had
almost become a vocation for every young man to
spend a few years in America before he “settled
down”.

The Call to
Migrant Work: 1880’s-1914

The first Assyrians who came to the United States
were young men who were sent by Western missionaries
to be trained for mission work in their native
country. Among them were Dr. Isaac Adams and Dr.
Jesse Yonan . The former arrived in 1888 the latter
in 1892. Rev. Andrew D. Urshan came in1911; Rev.
Paul Newey arrived in 1906, and Alexander Joseph
Oraham came in 1913. All these men came from Iran.
From Turkey came Dr. Abraham Yoosuf in 1889, Haidou
Ablahat, a native of Tkhuma, in 1906. Naoum Faik in
1912, and Senharib Balley in 1913.

These men represented a class of intellectuals and
fervent Assyrian nationalists. They attained
leadership roles in the Assyrian-American community
in subsequent years.

The
first Assyrian to visit U.S.A. from Urmia was
probably Mar Yohannan, Bishop of Urmia, who came
in1841 at the invitation of Dr. Perkins, and stayed
for a year. Jacob Asfar from Diarbekir, Turkey,
was the first “Jacobite” Assyrian to come to U.S.A.
in 1882.[4]
The first Chaldean Assyrian was Zia Attlala from the
village of Telkaif in present-day Northern Iraq. He
arrived in Philadelphia around 1889, and worked in a
hotel.[5]
Through these pioneers the Assyrians back home
learned about work opportunities in North America.
This started the wave of migrant laborers who
traveled to the industrial cities of the Eastern
U.S.A. to work in the factories.

The Condition of Migrant Workers in U.S.A.

From the beginning a symbiotic relationship was
established between the migrant workers in the
Unites States, and the communities they left behind
in the “old country”. The former sustained the
latter financially through regular remittances.
Although many Assyrians regularly crossed the border
into Russia to work or learn trades, overseas
migration was regarded as the best way to make
“quick money”. Migrant work became so prevalent
that by 1900 most Assyrian villages in Urmia were
empty of their able-bodied men during the greater
part of the year.[6]
We have more detailed information on the condition
of the migrant workers in U.S.A. from Urmia because
the weekly newspaper Kokhva, published in Urmia
between 1906-1917, had a column on the migrant
workers abroad. Ironically, instead of benefiting
the communities at home, it appears from Kokhva
reports that migrant work disrupted the fabric of
family and community life and caused economic
hardship at home. For instance, in one report Kokhva
writes:

“People whose able-bodied men are in U.S.A.,
depend on remittances

for their survival. When none arrives, they are
forced to take loans with

Assyrians left for America with high hopes, but
conditions in America were not what the migrant men
expected. Among those who left from Urmia, a few
returned and brought enough money to invest in land
and property. Some were never heard from again, and
others could not even accumulate enough to pay for
their passage back home.[8]
A letter from Yonkers by a Newy Baba of Sheerabad
was published in Kokhva that explains the situation
of migrant workers:

The young Assyrians in U.S. A. have been very
unlucky in using their

talents and the skills they had in the old country,
or developing them in

America. A large number of trained teachers and
priests are here today,

but they have abandoned their profession. They are
instead working in

factories as low-grade laborers. From there you are
advising us to focus

on work and not on preaching or teaching. It is
true that work is a man’s

honor and a commandment of God, but it is not
necessary that we should

all be laborers in factories. There are two reasons
for this problem: first,

our people themselves seek lowly jobs. They do not
want to endure the

hardship of going to school and learn new skills.
Second, we do not

receive any aid from abroad or from other
organizations as other migrant

Kokhva began to run a column titled “The Rueful
Emigrant” where the lamentable condition of migrant
workers was described, and overseas migration was
criticized. Regarding the condition of migrant
workers in Chicago we read:

“There are 400 Assyrians in Chicago. Most men are
employed. Some

are doing well. Others are unfortunate and idle.
For some

this city has been good; for others a stumbling
block and a road to vice.

All live in the oldest part of town in the inner
city. This section is inhabited

by new immigrants from Europe and is full of bars
and centers of vice.

Men are not getting an education or learning
language because they spend their

life in this area, and as they live together, they
do not speak English

In
the same issue the editorial laments “Men leave Iran
with a healthy complexion and return pale and
weak”. The reason is that idleness and vice lead to
deterioration. “At this cost buying land and a
luxury home in Iran is a national misfortune.” The
editorial urges men to take night classes in order
to improve their lot. “Men who want to leave must
consider if it is worth to work hard, be away from
the family, and eat little, get weak, and succumb to
Tuberculosis.”[11]
Kokhva had subscribers in the United States. In
response to the “Rueful Emigrant” column, a migrant
worker in America wrote:

The whole world is on the move, not just Assyrian
men. It is preferable to

seek better life than to sit idly by the Tanura all
winter long hoping one’s

daily bread will fall into one’s lap miraculously.
No one likes to leave one’s

hometown and live among strangers. On the other
hand, the successful men

abroad have sent thousands of dollars back home.
Had they stayed home,

they would not have earned a penny. …We’re tired of
reading about the

ills of emigration. What is a college graduate in
Urmia to do if he does

not want to be a priest or a teacher? Why local
opportunities for work are

By
1906 there were over 1000 Assyrians in U.S.A. from
Urmia alone. Most of the Assyrians lived in
Chicago, but there were small communities in New
Britain and Hartford, New York, New Jersey, Yonkers,
Philadelphia, Massachusetts, Flint Michigan, and
Gary, Indiana.[13]
There were 60 Assyrians in Philadelphia in 1907.
The Asyrians from the Urmia region settled in
Connecticut, Chicago and Turlock.

Following the outbreak of WWI in 1914, news came
from Iran and Turkey that the Assyrians were being
massacred, their homes were looted, their women and
girls were carried away, and they were uprooted from
their homes. The bachelors who had come to America
before WWI with the intention of returning home,
decided to stay and establish families in the United
States after they heard that their homes and
villages were in ruin. They asked their relatives
for brides from the old country. They raised funds
to bring over their relatives who had survived the
WWI holocaust. A new chapter in the history of
Assyrian-Americans opened with sojourners becoming
settlers.

A brief history of the early settlements follows:

The
Connecticut Assyrian Community

The Assyrians in Connecticut lived in the two towns
of Hartford and New Britain. Since these towns are
only 15 miles apart a unified community was
constituted. The first settlers were sent by the
American missionaries. They were from the villages
of Gogtapa and Taka-Ardishay. Initially mostly men
immigrated to Hartford-New Britain, since they were
sojourners, and not settlers. They were drawn to
this area because of the availability of industrial
jobs. Many of them were employed at the Stanley
hardware factory in New Britain, a maker of tools.
Others worked as painters and plasterers. New
Britain was the site of one of the earliest Assyrian
permanent settlements. As early as 1907 a small
community had emerged.

Kokhva goes on to urge Assyrian men abroad to marry
Assyrian women. And while expressing happiness
regarding weddings in America, it notes that none
are taking place in Urmia. (Presumably because the
community is left without its young men.)

Another indication that some Assyrians were in
America to stay comes from their business ventures.
The following news item is interesting as it also
reveals the working conditions of factory workers in
New Britain:

The Assyrians of New Britain established “The
Assyrian Brotherhood Association for purposes of
mutual help in 1907.[16]
In the 1980’s the population of this community was
estimated at 3.500.
[17]

The
Chicago Assyrian community

The
first Assyrians to arrive in Chicago were graduates
of the American Mission College in Urmia who came to
pursue their studies in the 1890’s. Among the
pioneer generation was Dr. Shlemon Warda, from the
village of Sopoorghan. He came in 1899 to study
medicine; Daniel Sayad came in 1896 from the village
of Gogtapa to attend college, but ended up as a
Persian rug dealer. Pera Odishoo came from the
village of Degala in 1906. Others settled in the
nearby city of Gary, Indiana where they found
employment in the steel mills of the city. The first
church to be established in Chicago was Carter
Memorial Presbyterian Church built in 1910.[18]

By 1906 there were already 250 Assyrians in
Chicago. In a 1907 issue Kokhva reports that 5
bible study groups met every Sunday. The Persian
Bible Class was established in 1902. Usta Baaba of
Gulpatalikhan was its director. The Assyrian
Christian Men’s Welfare Association was under the
leadership of Kasha Nesturus of Delgoshah. The goal
of the association was: “To help the members in
work related affairs as well as leisure activities;
to raise Christian awareness; to shepherd those
fallen into the vices of drinking and gambling; and
to prevent litigation in the Assyrian community[19]
Young Christian-Surayi Association had Andrius of
Shamshajian on its executive board. Since the
Assyrians did not have their own church, they met in
various rented churches at that time.[20]

In 1944 the Patriarch Mar Shimun prepared the
following estimate of the distribution of Assyrians
in the United States:[21]

California: (Turlock and San Francisco): 1,500

Connecticut (Hartford, New Britain): 1,200

Illinois (Chicago): 5,000

Indiana (Gary): 1,000

Michigan (Flint): 600

Detroit: 100

New Jersey (Elizabeth): 200

New York (New York Metropolitan Area: 500

Pennsylvania (Philadelphia): 500

Total: 11,100

Note: These figures do not include the
Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) or Chaldean Assyrians.

The Assyrian Community in Turlock California

The
Turlock community is unique in three ways. First,
it was the only farming community that the Assyrians
established in the United States. Second,
from the beginning it was colonized by settlers and
not sojourners. Third, it was the sole
planned group project intended for resettlement
abroad. The emigrants were men of some substance
who were leaving with their families or alone, but
with the intention of eventually removing their
entire family to the United States. They were
mostly mission-educated converts to Western
denominations who voluntarily uprooted themselves
from their ancestral homes as well as their
traditions. The founder of the colony was Dr. Isaac
Adams, an Assyrian medical missionary, who had led a
colony of 36 men and women out of Urmia to North
Battleford, Canada in1902. This colony eventually
became the foundation for the Assyrian community of
Turlock. Isaac Adams had come to the United States
in 1888 at the age of 16. With the help of the
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, he studied
to become first a minister and later a medical
doctor. Adams traveled throughout North America on
lecture tours dressed in his picturesque native
costumes and spoke on the culture of the Middle
East. He established the Turlock colony in 1910
with 45 people who were members of his own family
and relatives from Canada, plus some settlers he had
recruited from Chicago and points East. The early
settlers from Canada were the Adams, Backus, and the
Lazar family. The settlers were poor and could not
invest in developed farms. They bought or leased
undeveloped land that they had to break themselves.
Since new farms were not viable, men worked as
bricklayers, painters, and plasterers in the city of
San Francisco where jobs were more available. In
1915 the total population of Turlock’s community was
1,500. Of these 10 families were Assyrian (Smith
1981:115). The colony grew after the holocaust of
WWI. Poor as they were, the Turlock Assyrians sent
passage money to bring over those who had survived
the massacre. Beginning in 1920 refugees began to
arrive in the Turlock region. The first church the
Assyrians of Turlock built was the nondenominational
Assyrian Evangelical Church in 1924. Turlock
gradually became a retirement community. In 1940’s
Assyrians from Chicago and other Eastern States
sought the warmer climate of California for
retirement. The colony grew so that in the 1950’s
8% of the total town population was Assyrian (Ishaya
1985:154.) In mid 1960’s for the first time
Assyrians from Iraq began to settle in the
Modesto-Turlock region. The exclusivist Arab-Muslim
national ideology marginalized the Christian
minorities in Iraq.

As the quota restrictions were removed from the
American immigration policy in 1965, those Assyrians
who had relatives in the United States or were
professionals began to immigrate to this country in
larger numbers. The Iraqi-Assyrian immigrants of the
1970’s were refugees from the war-torn region of
Northern Iraq whose villages were shelled during the
Kurdo-Iraqi war (1971-1975). The consolidation of
Ba’th regime in Iraq in the 1970’s, the Islamic
Revolution in Iran (1979), the Gulf War in Iraq
(1990), threw up fresh waves of refugees some of
whom made their way into the Turlock area. The old
Assyrian Civic Club of Turlock, built in 1949 had
become too small for the community. In 1979
Assyrians built the largest civic club in the
Turlock-Modesto area. It served not only the
Assyrians themselves, but brought considerable
revenue to the club as the non-Assyrian community
rented it year round. The Assyrians from Iraq had
their own club in Ceres called the Bet Nahrain
Assyrian-American club. Both clubs have had a radio
and television program.[22]

The
Assyrian Communities from Turkey and Syria

The first immigrants were from Kharphut who arrived
in the 1890’s, and settled in Worcester. After the
massacre of the Assyrians and Armenians in Turkey in
1895, the number of immigrant increased. By 1913
there were some 200 families in Worcester,
Springfield, Boston and Fitchburg. In each of these
communities ethnic organizations had already been
established. Due to its large manufacturing plants,
Worcester was the center of the Assyrian community
of Kharphut. It was the home of the Kharphut
Assyrian Association. There was an Assyrian Ladies
church association with a membership of 75- 80.
Almost all the immigrants had some schooling in the
church school in Kharphut, and were literate, some
even in English. Until 1924, at which time the
Assyrians built St Mary’s Assyrian Apostolic Church,
they used to hold services in rented churches or
halls. The person who founded St. Mary’s church was
Dr. Abraham. K. Yoosuf. The church soon became the
locus of the Assyrian community activities and an
agent of preserving the ethnic faith and language.
In addition it helped the newly arrived refugees to
find housing and employment[23]

The
Assyrians who had fled from Diyarbakir during the
1895 massacre, being skilled silk weavers, settled
in New Jersey which was a center of silk works.
Others found employment as custom tailors, merchants
and industrial workers in Sterling, Summit,
Paterson, Newark, New Jersey, New York City, and
Rhodes Island. These families gradually brought
their surviving relatives to the United States. In
1897, the Assyrians organized their first society,
the Assyrian National School Association in Sterling
to raise funds and assist the Assyrians in Turkey to
establish Assyrian language classes in their church
schools, and to support the Assyrian churches
there. In 1909 the Assyrian Ladies Aid Society
was organized for the purpose of accumulating funds
to build an Assyrian Church. Rev. Hanna Koorie was
ordained in Jerusalem and sent to minister the New
Jersey community in 1907. He, together with his
brother Rev. Nioum Koorie, was instrumental in the
building of the first Sanctuary, the Church of
Virgin Mary in 1927.

The refugees from Turkey were divided between those
who identified themselves as Assyrians, and those
who preferred to be called “Syrian Arameans”. As
the community living in New Jersey and New York
increased in number, the latter established the
Charitable association of Mar Afram in Hoboken, New
Jersey to assist the displaced “Syrians” in the old
country financially. At the same time some of the
funds were used for the housing and schooling of the
new immigrants. The Taw, Meem,
Simkath School Association was established in
1899 to provide children of the massacre victims
with proper education. In 1949 Archbishop
Athnansius Yeshue Samuel, Syrian Orthodox
Metropolitan of Jerusalem, arrived in Jersey City
and brought relief to the United States for the
refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict in
Palestine. He had become well known worldwide due
to his connection with the Dead Sea Scrolls of
Qumran. It was he who brought them to the United
States and made possible their exposition and
study. Even today the Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese
exhibits some of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments.
Following the 1948 conflict in Palestine, several
thousand [As]Syrians from the Holy Land immigrated
to the New Jersey area and settled in and about
Hackensack and the Syrian Archbishopric. These
refugees were originally from Tur Abdin. They had
settled in Palestine as a result of the displacement
caused by the Turkish persecutions. Most of them
were businessmen and a number of them established
their own factories and firms in New Jersey. Some
of the refugees from Palestine settled in Chicago,
Detroit, and Los Angeles. The wave of immigration
has continued due to the continued Arab-Israeli
conflict, the Kurdish rebellion in the north of
Iraq, and the social and political uncertainties in
Lebanon and Syria.

In the 1970’s there were 400 families in New
Jersey alone. It was a thriving community with
several interconnected organizations. The Mor
Ephraim Syriac School provided classes for both
children and adults to learn how to read and write
the Syriac [Aramaic] language. There were several
other organizations. The Senharib Soccer Team
played against many soccer teams all over New Jersey
with much success. The Kowk Bet Oroam Dance Group
performed statewide in the Bicentennial celebrations
in 1976. The Ladies of Shameran Society played a
vital role in fund-raising for scholarship programs
and for aid to the needy.
[24]

It is interesting that although “Syrian Arameans”
claimed they did not recognize themselves as
Assyrians, nevertheless they named their various
organizations by ancient Assyrian names. Perhaps
they were not all of the same mind.

The
Assyrian Chaldean Community in Michigan

The first Chaldean Assyrians came to U.S.A. from the
village of Telkaif in Northern Iraq as migrant
workers between 1910-1912, and settled in Detroit,
Michigan. With the onset of WWI and the uprooting
of the Assyrians, the men brought their families
over with the intention of permanent settlement in
this country. In 1923 there were ten adults from
Telkaif and a few Chaldeans from other Iraqi towns,
namely Mosul. The first parish was established in
1947. At that time the population had reached
eighty families. In 1952, the community had
increased to 120 families, and by 1957 it had
doubled to 230 families, or 1000 persons. Political
tensions in Northern Iraq brought a steady flow of
refugees to this community such that by 1978 the
community numbered 2,674 families or 11,452
persons. Since this number is greater than the
number of persons living in Telkaif itself, it can
be concluded that the Telkaif community in Northern
Iraq was effectively transplanted to the Detroit
Metropolitan Area by 1970’s.[25].
A number of Telkaifees came to U.S.A. after an
initial move and residence in Baghdad. Others
joined the Detroit community from other parts of the
world, mainly from the Chaldean colony in Mexico.
The first Chaldean rite priest, Fr. Thomas (Rauphael
) Bidawid, arrived in Detroit in 1947. The first
sanctuary, dedicated in August 1948, was called
“Mother of God”. It was later demolished for
highway development, and a new sanctuary was built
in 1956.

The
first Chaldean immigrants lived in Detroit’s near
East side. By 1960’s the community had relocated to
the northwest areas of the city and in the northwest
suburbs. The earliest immigrant opened retail
grocery shops. The later immigrants specialized in
this line of business as well.[26]

The
Flint, Michigan Assyrian Community

Assyrians
came to Flint initially from the refugee camp in
Baquba in 1918.. Most were uprooted Ashiret tribes
from Drenaye, Tergawar, and Urmia. They were later
joined by the Assyrians from the settlements on the
Khabur River. Being the home of the General Motors
Corporation, Flint attracted Assyrian refugees in
search of jobs. Their basic occupation from the
first was production work in the Buick Motor
Division of the General Mortors Corporation. They
worked as press operators, machine operators,
grinders, or autoworkers at Buick. Many also bought
small farms on long-time contracts. While men
worked in the factories, women and children tended
the farms. Due to the seasonal character of the
automobile industry, with its periodic layoffs, the
Assyrians in Flint were among the poorest section of
the Assyrian immigrants in U.S.A. By 1944 there
were 600 Assyrians in Flint. Due to their poverty
they lived in the less desirable sections of the
town.[27]

In
Chicago many of the American born, or American
raised Assyrians grew up around Clark Street where
Assyrian homes, businesses, and particularly the
popular Kasha Hedou’s church was located. It
appears that the Clark Street community was a
closely-knit and very lively immigrant outpost. It
satisfied most of the new immigrants’ needs and
insulated them from the unfamiliar world that
surrounded them in the new country. Kasha Hedou’s
church, known as the Carter Memorial Church, was not
only a church, but also the ethnic civic center and
post office as well. It was a post office because
as one old-timer said: “We were all working people
and changed our address frequently. All letters
came to 56, West Huron St. and were distributed on
Wednesdays after a sermon.” The new immigrants
preferred to go to Assyrian physicians and dentists
because they could communicate their problems to
them in Assyrian. And in the Clark Street community
there was an assortment of Assyrian professionals.
The best remembered are the David brothers. There
were four of these: Dr. Eshap David and Dr. Ropus
David were both physicians; another brother was a
dentist, and one was a priest. As one old timer
mentioned, people used to tell them for joke: “On
of you should have been an undertaker; then you
could take care of a person from cradle to the
grave.” In sum the Clark street community was a
relatively self-sufficient social unit and most of
its members did not have contact with mainstream
America beyond the workplace and the marketplace.

The first Assyrian newspaper published in Chicago
was the American Assyrian Herald. From 1915-1919
the publisher and chief editor was Rev. Paul Newey,
who had graduated from the Chicago Theological
Seminary in 1913. Rev. Newey also created the
Assyrian Press with its own east Assyrian types.
Many Assyrian authors and publishers used this
press.
[28]

In terms of living standards, the American born
generation grew up in working class families. As
stated earlier, the original immigrants had not
found in America the opportunities for work they had
expected. Most did not know English well and were
certainly unfamiliar with the American world of
business. Although they were literate in several
Middle Eastern languages, and were skilled craftsmen
and artisans, in America they started off as
unskilled laborers in the hotel, restaurant and
construction business. Often women had to find work
outside the home as well to supplement the family
income—a situation that was unprecedented in the old
country. In spite of the hardships of the twenties
and the depression of the thirties, these immigrants
made a valiant effort to work hard, save every
penny, educate their children, and improve their
standard of living. We know that theirs is a
success story because their offspring became
professionals, or white-collar workers. They became
homeowners, and were able to move into better parts
of the city in whichever state they lived. Perhaps
the Assyrians were too successful in their effort to
make the American dream come true. By 1950’s the
rate of assimilation was so high, that the American
born and raised generation could not converse in,
much less read and write the Assyrian language. The
business of the civic organizations began to be
carried in the English language. The English
language section of the Assyrian periodicals
published in the United States was growing, that of
the Assyrian language section diminishing. It must
be noted that the continuity of Assyrians as a
distinct minority in the United States has been due
to the constant inflow of new immigrants into the
country. Assyrian Americans have not set in place
substantial educational institutions or otherwise an
economic infrastructure to maintain Assyrian ethnic
continuity.

Before World War I overseas migration for the
purpose of permanent settlement was small compared
to the rush of refugees that followed the uprooting
of Assyrians after the war. The settlement pattern
of Assyrian colonies indicates regional or even
village clustering. For instance, the “Jacobite”
Assyrians from Turkey and Syria settled initially in
New York, New Jersey, Rhodes Island, and
Massachusetts. “Chaldeans” (Catholic Assyrians) from
Northern Iraq settled in Michigan, Assyrians from
the villages of Gogtapa and Taka-Ardishay (located
in Northwestern Iran) in Connecticut, and Assyrian
highlanders from the Ahiret tribes in Flint,
Michigan. As a major industrial city in the
Midwest, Chicago became the locus of Assyrian
migrant workers from both Iran and Iraq. Turlock in
California was unique in the sense that it was not
composed of migrant workers. Founded by Rev. Dr.
Isaac Adams, from the beginning it was designed for
permanent settlement. For the first time in their
history as Christians, the dispersed branches of the
Assyrian nation had an opportunity to live within a
single country.

A more detailed profile of the establishment of the
different colonies follows.

Organizational Unification and Emerging National
Identity

As
mentioned earlier, before WWI the Assyrian
communities in the United States were composed of
migrant workers whose ultimate goal was to return
back to their homeland. The religious and civic
organizations they established served sectarian or
local social needs, but the genocide of Assyrians
and Armenians right before and during WWI forced
both the Assyrians in the Middle East and those in
the United States to take united action on a
national level. The Jacobite Assyrians of New
Jersey and Massachusetts became aware that there
were Assyrians from Iran in other parts of the
United States. In 1915 The Assyrian Jacobites from
Turkey and the Assyrians of Iran formed the Assyrian
National Association of America with branches in
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
Indiana, Chicago, and Flint, Michigan. They chose
an Assyrian Baptist Minister, the Reverend Joel E.
Warda who was an able leader, a brilliant orator and
the publisher of the Assyrian language newspaper,
the “Izgadda”, as the president. After the murder
of Mar Benyamin Shimun and the uprooting of the
Assyrians from their homes in Iran and Turkey in
1918, the political leadership of the Assyrian
nation fell effectively into the hands of the
Assyrians in the United States. Under the banner of
Assyrian National Association, in 1919 the Assyrians
sent two delegates to the Versailles Peace
Conference in France to negotiate for an autonomous
Assyrian state in the Middle East.[29]
These were Rev. Joel Warda, president of the
association and Major Dr. A. Yoosuf, the vice
president. The Assyrians from the United States
were joined in Paris by other Assyrian
representatives from Turkey (Dr. Zebouni, Mr. Namick,
Mr. Najib, Mr. Raji, Mr. Ablahad and His Grace
Serverius Afrem Barsaum). There were also three
delegates from Tiflis, Caucasus (Lazar Yacoboff,
Shimon Ganja and Rev. Lazar George representing the
Assyrians of Russia. The Assyrians who were divided
for centuries by sectarian, denominational and
political boundaries, for the first time came
together as a single nation. Rev. Joel Warda sent a
cable to the Prime Minister of Great Britain that
reads in part:

The Assyrian atrocities are well known to the
British people, and the Assyrian unwavering loyalty
has been proven on the fields of battle. Our slain
cover the hill tops of Kurdistan, and our martyrs
the valleys of Persia. Intense as the fire of our
persecution has been, we have not been consumed.
There is still a sufficient remnant left entitled to
a portion of our fatherland. There the Assyrians
would return from the interior of Turkey, from
Armenia, from other parts of Mesopotamia, from
Persia, from Caucasia, from Russia and elsewhere to
enjoy the life of national freedom under the same
protection that has redeemed us from our bondage.
Our desire for the province of Mosul including Sapna,
Barwars and Beth Badin we are making known to
President Wilson and we are now presenting for the
just consideration of the British government and
that of her allies.[30]

With the Assyrian intellectuals murdered or uprooted
in the Middle East, the task of documenting the
history of the Assyrian genocide fell on the
shoulder of those who were in the United States.
The first publication on the history of WWI Assyrian
genocide was by Dr. Abraham Yohanan (1853-1925). He
wrote The Death of a Nation that was
published in 1916. He was the first Assyrian to
obtain a PhD. from an American University and the
first Iranian that was a professor in one of the
largest and most prestigious universities in U.S.A.,
namely Columbia University. Rev. Joel Warda wrote
and published The Flickering Light of Asia in
1924. Rev. Samuel David, who had come to Chicago to
serve the Assyrian Chaldean Catholic Church in 1913,
published Tasheeta d-Atour-Chldea (The
History of Assyro-Chaldea) in the Assyrian language
in 1923. Yousif Malik published The British
Betrayal of the Assyrians in 1935.

Various Assyrian organizations were established
across the different States of U.S. A. to provide
relief for the refugees stranded in various parts of
the Middle East. They began publishing newspapers
or monthly magazines to keep the Assyrians abreast
the latest happenings in the Middle East, or the
activities of the Assyrians in the United States.
Among such publications were: Bet Nahrain by
Naum Faiq, mimeographed in Turkish and Assyrian;
Hoyoto (The Assyrian Voice) published by
Senharib Balley, from Paterson N. J. in Turkish and
Assyrian; Cavecho da Manooko by Gabriel
Boyajy, in Turkish and Assyrian from College Point,
N.Y.; The New Assyrian by Charles S. Dartley,
in English and Assyrian from Jersey City, N.J.;
The Assyri-Chaldean Union published by Assyrian
National Association, in Assyrian, English, and
Arabic from New York City.

Izgedda. by Rev. Joel Warda, from New
York, N.Y. in Assyrian. Note that most of these
publications were spearheaded by Assyrians from
Turkey of the Syrian Orthodox or “Jacobite”
denomination.

The
impetus for national reunification took another
boost in 1933 in the aftermath of the Semeil
massacre. In 1932 when the British mandatory
government granted Iraq political independence, the
Chaldean Assyrians accepted Iraqi sovereignty; but
the Nestorian Highlanders remained adamant in their
request for a homogenous resettlement in the Mosul
region with a measure of local autonomy under their
own patriarch. This was in accordance with the
recommendations of the Mosul commission, which was
appointed by the League of Nations to look into the
problem of these refugees in 1924. But these
recommendations were never enacted. In 1933, on the
eve of Iraqi national independence, the military
forces entered Simail, an Assyrian village north of
Mosul. An indiscriminate massacre of over 600
unarmed men, women and children followed. 60 other
surrounding villages were looted. The number of
casualties reached 3,000 before the massacre
stopped. The Patriarch, Mar Eshaia Shimun was
exiled to Cyprus.
[31]

The reaction of Assyrian Americans was to
establish the Assyrian American Federation (AAF) in
1933 to send relief to the victims, and plead the
case of Assyrians before international
organizations. Senharib Balley was the architect who
envisioned the structure of an umbrella organization
uniting the different regional associations.[32]
He was inspired by the political structure of the
United States which, in turn was borrowed from the
Native American Confederacy of the Iroquois
nations. AAF united all the Assyrian American
Associations organized in different states as its
affiliates. This was supposed to be a historical
landmark for the Assyrians in the sense that a
unification of various sectarian groups was achieved
under a national agenda.

After the exile of Mar Shimun from Iraq, the seat
of the Church of the East Patriarchate was moved to
Chicago, U.S.A. in 1945.

The establishment of the Assyrian Universal
Alliance was another major step in the promotion of
unity among the Assyrians now that they had become
widely dispersed on a worldwide scale. Although
spearheaded by the Assyrians in the Middle East, it
was later to come under the leadership of Assyrians
in U.S.A. Its goal was to serve as an umbrella
organization linking all Assyrian associations
worldwide into a federated system with a unified
national agenda namely, one name, one
language, one flag, and one national
goal.[33]

Each political jolt in the Middle East created a
fresh wave of Assyrian refugees that needed to be
rescued by the Assyrian organizations in the free
world. Such was the case with the Kurdo Iraqi war
of 1970’s, the Khomeini Islamic Revolution of the
1978 in Iran, the Iran-Iraq war of 1980’s, and the
Gulf war of 1991. For instance, during the Kurdo-Iraqi
war (1971-1975) the Assyrians inhabiting Northern
Iraq were caught in the war zone. Their villages
were shelled and the refugees fled to Turkey, Greece
and Italy, and remained stranded there. With the
intervention of the Assyrian Universal Alliance
(established in 1968 in Pau France), and the help of
the World Council of churches, close to 2,000
Assyrians were admitted into the United States of
America over the years within the limits of this
country’s quotas. The majority settled in Chicago,
Illinois
[34]

Both the Orthodox Syrians (Jacobites) and the
Chaldeans had members in their leadership that
identified themselves as Assyrians and were keen
supporters of a unified Assyrian front. Among the
Jacobites a fervent supporter of the Assyrian cause
was Dr. David Perley, an attorney at law, who wrote
and published several books and treatise defending
the Assyrian name and Assyrian national rights. The
Jacobite Assyrians had several periodicals that
voiced the call for national unity. Jacobite
Associations such as Mardinly Educational Foundation
worked closely with other Assyrian organizations in
the United States. Less vocal were the Chaldeans
who dealt very with nationalism very reservedly and
remained aloof from the Assyrian patriotic and
nationalist sentiment and rhetoric. To impress upon
the Chaldeans that they were regarded as members of
the Assyrian nation, the leadership of AUA elected
Mr. Aprim Rayis, a prominent Chaldean from Detroit,
as the president of the AUA for consecutive terms in
the 1980’s and 1990’s. This measure was only
marginally successful.

During 1920’s when Great Britain was preparing to
make Iraq an independent country, the Chaldean
Church opted to become integrated into the Iraqi
society and not embrace the claim of Assyrians to
their national rights. There was still a large
Chaldean population in Iraq that guided the
political choices of the immigrant outposts in the
United States. However, in 1974, Mar Raphael Bidawid,
the Chaldean bishop of Beirut, a distinguished
clergy and highly educated person, came to visit the
Chaldean parishes in the United States. In a
groundbreaking declaration he stated: “Before I
became a priest, I was an Assyrian. Before I became
a bishop I was an Assyrian. I am an Assyrian today,
tomorrow, forever, and I am proud of it.”[35]
Mar Rahael Bidawid later occupied the position of
the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church.

Assyrian Americans were at a stage now where they
could take a leadership role in unifying the
scattered elements of the nation, and take steps in
passing onto the next generation of Assyrians the
ethnic language, heritage, and a sense of national
awareness. For the first time the Assyrians were
living in a country that granted freedom of
organization and expression. Assyrian-Americans had
the highest standard of living compared to Assyrians
elsewhere. In AANF and its regional affiliates,
they had built the organizational base for unifying
and strengthening the Assyrian-American Diaspora.
It was time to put these structures to work.
Anticipating the critical historical moment, William
Daniel, a resourceful writer and social critic,
wrote and published a book titled: Assyrians of
today Their Problem and a Solution[36].
Among the solutions that he suggested were foremost
the establishment of a national fund; an end to
voluntarism in the rank and file of the Federation;
the formation of professional organizations and
craft unions on a local level to provide legal
assistance, employment for the new immigrants, and
to set up professional and vocational workshop to
serve the community. Foremost was the establishment
of private schools to provide high quality education
for the children of Assyrian Americans, with a
curriculum that would include classes in the native
language and heritage.

The
Failed Promise: Organizational Regression

At
the turn of the 21st century both AANF
and AUA had very little to show the Assyrian people
in terms of achievements. AANF and its affiliates
had failed to provide the educational and cultural
services they pledged in their constitutions. The
AUA receded from an umbrella organization to a
sectarian political party. The causes of failure
are both internal and external, and it is
instructive to examine them.

Structural
Problems within AANF

One of the major problems of AANF rank and file was
that it failed to staff the leadership of the
organization with paid professionals. In the
absence of a national fund, its affiliates could not
launch the necessary educational programs and social
services to help the next generation of Assyrians.
Their own children were fast disappearing in the
American melting pot. While the leadership
delivered rhetorical speeches about the perdition of
their nation through violence in the Middle East,
they did not take notice of the fact that, as one
Assyrian aptly put it, “This country is known as a
melting pot, and it is very successful in causing
minority groups to disappear non-violently”.[37]

When the original founders of the Assyrian National
Federation retired or passed away, the next
generation of Assyrian Americans, raised and
educated in this country, was the best candidate to
take over and mold the Assyrian institutions for
optimum performance in the American sociopolitical
system. Most were educated, professional and well
off economically; however, that generation was lost
through assimilation. Those who inherited the
leadership of the Assyrian national organizations
were mostly first generation immigrants from the old
country who volunteered their time, and did not have
the know-how of building the immigrant community at
the grass root level. They even lacked the vision
that the founders had. Consequently the AANF
together with its affiliate state organizations
deteriorated into social clubs in most cases
struggling just to meet the rent or the mortgage on
the association building. Thus the focus shifted on
entertainment programs to raise the necessary funds
for basic maintenance purposes. Lacking a unified
program of action, these organizations were inept in
conducting their business in a systematic and
professional level. Political Action Committees and
a public relations agenda were next to nonexistent.

The
Federation received a hard blow when the Chaldean
constituent, under the leadership of their
Metropolitan Mar Ibrahim Ibrahim, approached the
bureau of Census 2000 with a request not to be
subsumed [categorized] under the general appellation
of ‘Assyrians’. While back in Iraq, the historical
position of many Chaldeans with regard to their
identity was to claim themselves as “Arab
Christians”. With this new Census 2000 move there
seems to be an urge on the part of many Chaldeans to
claim an altogether separate ethnic group from the
Assyrians traced back to ancient Chaldeans. Among
the Jacobite Assyrians as well, the Syrian-Aramean
faction proved to be stronger than the Assyrian one;
they, too, requested to be identified separately.
To preserve a semblance of unity, 15 advisors who
were approached by the census bureau, recommended a
slashed designation, under which the three groups
would be counted separately, and yet maintain the
façade of unity. Although the slashed designation
was for census purposes only, it began to be used as
a title on articles or announcements that formerly
would have carried the title “Assyrian” only.

The
breakdown in the Assyrian national unity cannot be
blamed entirely on the Assyrian organizations. The
leadership of a Diaspora does not have a power base
like nation states, to impose unity on secessionist
elements. To empower itself and implement a
national agenda, the leadership needs to first hook
on to the political superstructure of the host
nation state. In the United States, this is
accomplished through political action committees
that work on a rigorous public relations agenda,
mobilize their ethnic constituents to participate in
the local elections, and gain support for their
action items in Washington through their
representatives: the state congressmen/women and
senators. In the case of Assyrian Americans, a big
stumbling block was ineligibility of white or green
cardholders to vote. Moreover, the Assyrians, in
general, did not understand the political process in
the United States. It was, therefore, important for
the political action committees to hold periodically
educational workshops and inculcate in the people
how a simple phone call to the office of the mayor
or a state senator or a signature on a form letter
can be effective in pushing forward an action item.
When such awareness did finally grow with the advent
of the Internet, it was a little too late.

The leadership of a Diaspora has a second critical
role. That is gaining the loyalty of its
constituents, and maintaining cohesiveness among
various groups. Lacking hegemonic power to enforce
unity, and often being a self-appointed group, the
only way it can establish credibility among its
constituents and gain their confidence is through
rendering dedicated service at the grassroots level;
conversely, the Assyrian local institutions adopted
a ‘welfare’ mentality. If the government can
provide free education and free social services, why
create parallel institutions? It was easier to talk
about sweeping national aspirations than to
implement practical social services. This is partly
the drawback of leadership based on voluntarism and
non-professionalism.

External
Pressures upon Assyrian Organizations and
Communities

The
Assyrian Diaspora in the United States was never
free of political repression that drew it to exile
in the first place. A case in point is the Assyrian
Universal Alliance. The organization became
infiltrated by Iraqi agents who compromised its
integrity in the 1980’s. The leadership of the
organization lost its credibility as it was accused
of corruption. Finally AUA was split in two during
its 13th congress at which time a faction
voted to expel WilliamYonan and Sam Andrews who were
both Assyrian-Americans and had monopolized the
executive positions of the AUA for 14 years.

In
the case of Chaldean-Americans, the Ba’th regime
tried to placate them by threat or bribery.
According to the State Department officials, in
November of 1979, the Iraqi government doled out
close to $10 million dollars to Assyrian churches in
the United States of America in an attempt to
improve its image.[38]
The Iraqi government’s gifts to the Chaldean
churches and organizations in Detroit alone was
estimated at $1.7 million in 1980.[39]
In Turlock, the Chaldean Church received $250
thousand with disastrous results to Monsignor Najor
who accepted it without complying with the terms.
The priest was shot and severely wounded in November
of 1981.[40]
The FBI agents confirmed the claims of the Assyrians
in Detroit that the Iraqi agents pay individuals on
regular basis to report on fellow-Assyrians in the
immigrant communities in the United States.[41]
As generous as the Iraqi government was towards its
supporters, it also turned vicious towards
dissidents. “The hand of revolution is long enough
to reach anybody, anywhere, at any time” was the
warning of Mr. Habib, the Iraqi’s chief attaché in
the United States, to the Iraqi immigrants in
Detroit.[42]
There was a record of beatings, arson, and even
homicide in the Chaldean immigrant communities. It
is interesting to note that the FBI failed to
apprehend the culprits who committed the acts of
terrorism as reported by those agents themselves.

In
brief, Assyrian organizations in Diaspora have had
to content against great odds both internal and
external to maintain a national agenda.

The
Assyrian Americans at the Threshold of 21st
Century:

Analysis and Conclusion

With an estimated population of 350,000, the United
States was the largest Assyrian outpost in the world
in the year 2001.[43]
In fact, after Iraq, United States had the largest
Assyrian population. The areas of highest
population concentration were Chicago, Detroit, and
the Turlock-Modesto region of California. Some
regional population shifts were noticeable in that
due to the high cost of living in California,
Assyrians from the East or Midwest were moving to
Phoenix, Arizona or Las Vegas upon retirement. Such
communities had become large enough that they had
established their own Assyrian American
Associations, and were affiliates of the AANF. The
national conventions sponsored by AANF drew close to
four to five thousand Assyrians during the Labor Day
Weekend at the end of August and beginning of
September each year. The Assyrians celebrated Kha
b-Nissan, the Assyrian New Year with parades in
Chicago and Turlock. To the host of periodicals and
radio and television programs, was added the
Internet that connected Assyrians all over the
world. Assyrians seemed to have found a homeland in
cyberspace. There was an aura of ethnic vitality
during large community functions that drew thousands
of people together. But the participants were
mostly recent immigrants with very few American born
Assyrians participating in ethnic events. Thus, the
ethnic vitality was not generated from within the
preexisting ethnic community. It was rather due to
the injection of new blood, so to speak, from the
recent refugees and immigrants from the Middle
East. Behind the façade of vitality lied a gloomy
reality. The young American born generation did not
participate in ethnic community organizations or
events. It did not speak, let alone read or write
the Assyrian language. Even the Assyrian churches
that had invariably maintained the Assyrian language
in their services, conducted their bible study or
Sunday school classes for the children and the
teenagers in English. (There were a few
exceptions.) Even
the children of new refugees and immigrants spoke
English at home. At this rate, within the next two
generations, the American melting pot would
effectively eliminate the Assyrians as a distinctive
ethnic group.

Fortunately,
though the native language and identity are
vulnerable to erosion and loss, they both can be
revitalized and reinvigorated if effective measures
are set in place. However, the reversal of erosion
through revitalization is a monumental task. It
requires an infrastructure that is not presently in
place in the Assyrian-American communities. The only
realistic hope of language revitalization and
cultural renaissance is the continuous success of
the model of native language and culture promotion
and maintenance initiated by the Assyrian Democratic
Movement in Iraq. If the post-Saddam era adopts a
secular and democratic constitution and implements
it, the hope for better native language and culture
maintenance will be enhanced. Without democracy in
Iraq, in particular, and in the Greater Middle East,
in general, the last window of opportunity will be
closed on the Assyrians as a historical people and
nation.

[1]Editorial Note:
Quotes from the Assyrian publication
Kokhva are translations from Assyrian
into English by the author of this article.

[2] (Issawi, C. (ed.)
The Economic History of the Middle East.
Chicago. The U. of Chicago Press. 1971:7-8.